Pile for nail-plates



(No Model.)

v 0. P.0OBB.

PILE FOR NAIL PLATES;

Patented Jan. 3,1882.

ania)".

1 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

f ()LIVERP. COBB, or AURORA, INDIANA;

PlLE FOR NAIL-PLATES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No.-251,834, dated January3, 1882.

Application filed April 26, 1880. (NomodeL) 1'0 all whom it may concern-Be it known that I, OLIVER AP. UOBB, of the city oftAurora, inthecounty ofDearborn and State of Indiana, have invented certain new andusefulImprovementsin Piles for the Man ufacture of Nail Plate andotherPlate from .Railroad-Rails and Wrought-Iron Scrap, of

which the following is aspecification.

My invention consists in a new mode of constructing the pile out ofwhich the plateto be used in the manufacture of nails and other articlesis rolled. v t

By the present known modes of making plate from rails and scrap the pileconsisting of said rails and scrap is, after being heated in a furnace,rolled into what is known to the trade as muck-bar. This muck-bar isthen again sheared, repiled, and reheated, and then rolled into plate.My new modeof construct ing the pile, which mode is more particularlyhereinafter described, enables the plate to be manufactured directly,from the pile at one heat-in other words, enables the manufac turer. todispense with the manufacture of the pile into muck-bar and thesubsequent shear ing of said muck-bar and repiling and reheating androllingof the same. My invention enables the pile of rails and scrap,520., made according to my improved mode to be directly placed in theheating-furnace and then carried to the plate-mill or plate-rolls, andin one operation of rolling to be made directly into plate for variouspurposes. My invention thus effects a saving of from twenty to thirtyper cent. in the manufacture of nail-plate, as the entire manufacture iseffected at one shearing, one heating, and one rolling.

Another advantage derived from the use of myinvention consists in thefact that the plate manufactured from piles made according to myinvention is much tougher and better than plate made from the pile asordinarily con structed. The reasons for this advantage will behereinafter more fully apparent.

The pile of rail and scrap as ordinarily constructed requires a hoop orhinder of thin hoopiron to hold together the various portions of thepile. This hoop or hinder cools so quickly when it comes with the pilefrom the furnace to the air that it causes blisters upon the plate,

and when nails are made from such a plate many of them are split byimperfection of the plate, resulting from the presence of such blister.

Another advantage from the use of my invention is that in themanufacture of nails all of the wrought-iron scraps resulting from themaking of nails can be at once utilized in my improved pile.

In the accompanying drawings, making a part of this specification,Figure 1 is a perspective view of a pile made according to my invention,(with this exception, that the scrap which is placed between the railsis omitted, in order to exhibit the interstices between the latter;) andFig. 2 is a central transverse section of the completed pile, the spacesbetween the rails being filled with scrap.

For the purposes of illustration I will describe my invention as appliedin the manufacture of nails. teen inches inwidth and about thirteeninches in length. What I designate as the length is the direction inwhich the length of the rails run when placedin the pile. The pileismade longer or shorter, according as small or large nails are to bemade. The rails (usually old ones) are cut into pieces, A, of the lengthof the pile to be made. One edge of each lower flange of each rail issheared olfor flattened down, so,

as to have the edge of the flange inthe same vertical plane as the edgeof the top of the rail when the rail is standing as it is when in useupon a railroad-track. A piece of wroughtiron plate, B, thirteen incheslong by fifteen broad is first laid down. The grain of the plate runsparallel to the length thereof.

Wrought iron scrap consisting of small flat pieces (such as have beenclipped off of the ends of the nailplates to make the latter even on theedge) is usually next placed upon the plate B. Upon this scrap threepieces, A, of rails are laid, the length of each rail being parallel tothe length of the plate. Wrought-iron scrap 0, however, is usuallyplaced upon the plate B, so that when the said pieces of rails are laidthereon, the interstices between the plate B and the rails are filledwith wroughtiron scrap of any suitable description. The

spaces between the rails are also filled with scrap. These pieces ofrail are so laid that that edge of the lower flange which has been forelying above.

reduced in width shall come against the plate 13. Another set of threepieces of rail is placed upon the said lower set or,layer of rails, asshown, the long edge of the lower flange of each piece being arranged tolie at the top side of the head of the lower pieces A, and the shorterside or edge of suchlower flange there- The interstices between theupper and lower layers are filled with wroughtiron scrap. The openings Dbetween the upper layer of rails A and the depressions in the uppersides of the latter are filled with wrought-iron scrap. 1f the buildingof the pile and the insertion of scrap has been properly conducted, theupper surface of the pile will now be quite level, and over this pile asthus constructed is laid a wrought-iron nail-plate, E, of the same sizeas plate B, and the grain of the plate running parallel to the length ofplate'B and also parallel to the length of the plate, which in this caseis thirteen inches. The pile is now completed so as to heat all partsalike without burning or blistering.

Those parts, T, of the pieces A which formed the tread when the railswere in position upon the track are usually granulated and brittle fromwear and constant vibration and concussion, and the web H of the railis, in the first instance, usually composed of poorer iron than the topand bottom portions thereof. The latter portion (the bottom) of oldrails is usually very tough. It will he observed that my disposition ofthese rails and of the scrap with reference to each other serves to briug the brit- ,tle and tough portions of the various rails and the scraptogether in such a manner that-the pile, when rolled down and out intoplates, shall have the same general consistency throughout. The additionof the plate B below and of the plate E above the rails serves to givethe nailplate, when rolled from the pile, a tough surface, and to givethe nails made from such plate a like tough surface. The addition ofthelayer G of scrap also imparts additional toughness to the surface ofthe plate and the surface of the nail manufactured therefrom;butthislayer may be omitted when it is found desirable to reduce theheight of the pile. The plate E may also be omitted when desired; but Iprefer to employit, as the quality of the plate made therefrom isimproved. The pile, after being completed, is taken to the furnace andduly heated, and thence taken directly to the nailplate mechanism androlled out into plate.

Piles as ordinarily constructed require, as before remarked, to beheated, then rolled into muck'ba'r, which latter is again sheared,rehandled, piled, and heated again, and then run through the nail-platemechanism, whereby the muck-bar is formed into plate.

My invention saves one operation of shearing, of handling, and heatingthe pile in the process of making nail-plate from old rails and scrap orpig iron. For making thicker plate from the pile the number ofhorizontal rows of pieces A in the pile may be increased, and for makingwider plate the pile may be made wider by adding rails disposed in thesam'emanner as those shown. Where more than two horizontal rows ofpieces A are employed the middle row or rows need not be reduced. Ofcourse the piles may be filled in with scrap other than that made in anail-factory, and the wrought-iron bottom andtop plates may be of ironother than nail plates, and these changes in the scrap and plates willnaturally follow where the pile is employed to furnish plate forpurposes other than the manufacture of nails.

I am aware that piles or fagots have hereto fore been patented composedof rails arranged and bound in various ways, with scrap filling theinterstices; also, that the flanges of such rails have been cut off toreduce their width on one side. I therefore do not claim, broadly, afagot of rails with either cut or uncut flanges, butlimit my claim tothe particular arrangement, in a scrap-tilled fagot, of rails with cutflan g'es.-

What I claim as new and of my invention, and desire to secure by LettersPatent, i's- The pile or fagot constructed substantially as before setforth -namely, of horizontal rows of rails lying on their side inreverse order in th'eresp'e'ctive rows, confined between top and bottomplates, the footer flange of each rail being cut oft on one side of therail to terminate on a line with the head of the rail on that side, andthe interstices being filled with scrap.

OLIVER P. COBB. Witnesses:

JNo. W. STREnLr, ORRIS P. COBB.

